by Annika Kuleba

A simple, white two-tiered box sits under a plot of trees on a cool spring day. Someone in a white, long suit stands near it with tools. You become curious, so you go to investigate. At first you hear, an insect whizzing past, but as you step closer you begin to hear a relaxed humming. The person in the white suit begins to take the boxes apart like some sort of puzzle, so you sit and watch closely. They carefully pull out a frame that is covered with moving insects and then holds it up to observe in the light. To you, it seems to be a mass of insects crawling around a piece of wood. But, to the person observing the frame it is fascinating, important, and means life or death not only for the buzzing insects but also for us humans.

The decline of the honey bee has gotten global attention over the past five years since studies on Colony Collapse Disorder were published. These studies have led people to the idea of adopting beekeeping as a hobby, however, they haven’t been taught properly or don’t have the right help to get started. Sweet Briar College has the help they need to succeed; however, the bees are still struggling. Since they decided to invest in hives so late in the season, the bees are having trouble adapting to their environment and are also finding it hard to fight off pests like parasites such as Varroa Mites. The Sweet Briar College Apiary is supported by Brooke Savage, a member of the Virginia Beekeepers Association. She helped transfer 20 hives onto the campus the last week of August.

In the beginning, when the hives were first established they were thriving. However, once the honey bees became comfortable in their new home they quickly realized that their neighbors next door to them were doing the same work they were, so they decided to steal from one another instead of going out to forage. When honey bees steal from one another, whichever hive cannot protect their goods properly will become weak causing it to fail. As classes started to do research on the hives, more problems occurred. With the opening and closing of the hives consistently they were making it easier for parasites to intrudes and enter. Due to disturbing the hive excessively, the bees could begin to feel threatened causing them to abandon the hive. So far for the Sweet Briar bees, the biggest issue had been intruders in the hive – mainly the parasites – who have caused the collapse of 4 hives in the past two months: “I have started a treatment on most hives which means the hives cannot be disturbed for two months so we won’t know until those two months are up if the treatment was successful or not” Savage said.

Before the treatments were applied the Sweet Briar, Beekeeping class went out to the apiary to do a hive check. When doing a hive check you will be looking for multiple things, you will want to see how many bees are active in the hive – workers and drones – and what are they doing. Next you will want to check the amount of honey storage they have, to ensure they will have enough food to survive the cold, harsh winter months that are approaching. If for some reason they seem to not have enough for the winter months, then you will have to install a feeder and fill it with a sugar water liquid. Another important aspect to check for is to ensure the queen bee is doing her job, which is making brood. Finally, if you are worried about the queen’s health then you will try and search for her in the hive. This is the process the beekeeping class went through last week to see what the health of their hives are before they apply the treatment. The students found going into the hive were interesting and exciting. “I never would have imagined myself doing something this daring, to me working with bees is like jumping out of an airplane,” said a Junior at Sweet Briar College. They spent two hours in multiple hives completing a hive check to ensure the bees were ready for the winter months and the parasite treatment. The professor who taught the class, Dr. Fink, walked around and was continuously taking pictures as someone found something interesting. “I think this is such a great experience for the girls here on campus, not only for those in the class or the science majors but for every student on campus. They are able to see where their food is coming from,” she said. The girls helped their environment by keeping bees, but they also helped the bees themselves.

According to the University of Maryland, beekeepers last year lost 33% of their honey bees across the United States. For beekeepers, it has become extremely difficult to raise honey bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Colony Collapse Disorder is the sudden mass disappearance in most worker bees in a colony. As of now, the causes are unknown but, there are some factors that have been proposed such as, diseases, pathogens, pesticides, and changes in habit. Most beekeepers in rural areas with abundant fields of crops find it to be the pesticides that other farmers are spraying, specifically, neonicotinoids which is an insecticide like nicotine. With the population of honey bees declining, the percent of pollination is also decreasing causing crops to struggle. By crops not getting the pollination we need we will see a spike in food prices or a decline in our favorite foods. The Pollinator Partnership, which works to protect the managements and environments of pollinators, did studies that determined that one out of every three bites you take at breakfast, lunch, and dinner comes from a honey bee. They also found that the worlds top seventy out of one hundred foods consumed in a day come from a honey bee. Without our honey bees we will no longer have our favorite foods.

For Mr. Jim Carter who lives in Stanly County, North Carolina, he sees the population decrease in honey bees first hand every year. Carter who is a member of the Stanly County Agri-Civic Council and the North Carolina Beekeepers Association is a knowledgeable source when it comes to the honey bee buzz. When talking to Carter you will quickly realize he is a very experienced beekeeper. “I have been keeping honey bees for over 25 years and the past 5 years have been a struggle to keep my hives thriving,” he said. On Carters property he has three apiaries – a collection of hives – consisting of a total of 35 hives. However, during the last 5 years his hive count has decreased drastically going from 55 to 35 hives. The experience seemed frightening to him. “I wasn’t sure what to do at first, I would observe the hive, and everything would seem just normal,” he said.

By experiencing this first hand, Carter and his wife became honey bee advocates working alongside a young girl who was working on her Girl Scout Gold Award Project called Bee Aware. They traveled both inside and outside of their county to sit at community events to inform people about the issues pollinators are currently facing and what they can do to help them. As apart of the young girl’s Girl Scout Gold Award Project, she created “bee bombs” which were a mixture of compost, clay, wildflower seeds, and water all rolled into a ball. These were handed out at every event; they were a huge hit since there wasn’t much work that needed to be done. All you had to do was throw the “bee bomb” out and let nature take care of the rest. People saw it as a simple way they could help the pollinators first hand. The young girl ultimately distributed over one thousand “bee bombs” not only across North Carolina but in other states such as Texas, California, New York, and New Jersey. On average when a “bee bomb” would flower, it had enough blooms for over twenty honey bees to collect from. Even something as simple as a “bee bomb” could help save the honey bees.

Honey bees live in a multi-tiered box that is normally a bright white color. Inside each tier are between eight to twelve frames which is where the bees build up their comb in order to store honey, pollen, or for eggs. In a hive there are three types of bees: worker bees, drones, and the queen. The workers and queen bee are the females in the hive while the drones are the males. The queen bee is large and in charge – literally – she has a larger and longer abdomen and tells every other honey bee what to do in the hive. She oversees laying the broad or baby honey bees in the comb. Then the worker bees take over. The worker bees do just about everything; they make sure the hive stays clean, forage for pollen or nectar, care for the baby bees, and guard the hive to ensure no intruders enter. The drones are lazy boys that hang out in the hive, and when they aren’t in the hive they are out mating with a queen from another colony. The biggest issue that studies are showing is that when the honey bees are leaving the colony they are landing on plants that have become contaminated with pesticides. When the honey bee lands on a plant that is contaminated, the contaminates then are transferred onto the bee. Therefore, when they go back to the hive, they are bringing in not only their necessities but also the pesticide causing the whole hive to possibly become sick. When a hive becomes sick they will either become very weak or will die off. To keep this from happening, more laws or standards need to be put into place to keep not only our honey bees safe but also our pollinators.

Beekeeping has no boundaries. You could have a hive in the country or the city. Recently, the idea of a rooftop hive has grown in popularity in larger cities like Boston. At the restaurant, City Table, which is located inside of the Lenox Hotel, they have three honey bee hives and a garden on their roof. They use the bees to pollinate the vegetables, since the chef enjoys having them for recipes such as soups and sides. They use the honey for their desserts or decoration. By supporting efforts like helping the honey bees, restaurants like City Table are finding that a spike in interest occurs. Having a rooftop hive is more work but to restaurants it is totally worth their while. When having the rooftop hive they must make sure that there is somewhere for the honey bees to travel to and get their nectar especially if they aren’t going to have a garden on the roof. They also must see if there are any guidelines or laws against keeping honey bees in the area. Once a company figures out if beekeeping will work in your area not only will it be beneficial to them but also to the environment.

The white multi-tiered boxes need to be seen by many more people and seen in a variety of places. Whether you seen twenty or more on the top of the field in the country or one on the top of an apartment building know that the white multi-tiered box means whether we have our favorite foods. Someone looking like the abominable snowman in their beekeepers’ suit isn’t the monster we should be afraid of, beekeepers are our heroes. Beekeepers are keeping the buzz alive for us to hear and enjoy.